During August 2004, I was working in Athens for the Olympic Games.
I took the
opportunity to see what citrus I could find in the city itself, plus a day trip
to the nearby island of Poros, and, after the games, a two day break to Naxos
Island.

Many Athens streets are lined with sour orange trees. Many churches and public buildings
are similarly adorned. But these ornamental trees are often infested with
pests and frequently seem to lack fruit.

I hoped the National Garden, and the neighbouring Zappeion garden would have a citrus
collection. These large shady areas are near the city centre. Again there
were many specimens of Citrus aurantium, the sour orange, but the only other citrus
trees were unlabelled, and had all been very heavily pruned recently. Perhaps
this was a result of the snow of February 2004, as many unpruned trees had
withered top growth as if touched by frost.

A few miles outside the city, is Athens University's 'Diomedes Botanic Garden'. Here
again a small collection of citrus had been very heavily pruned. The trees
lacked fruit and labels!

The island of Poros is 90 minutes fast hydrofoil trip from Athens' port of
Piraeus. It is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel, and from there
it is a couple of miles to the area known as Lemonodasos, apparently famed and
named for its lemon groves running down a valley to the sea. Tourist websites claim
"the thick forest of lemon trees has no parallel in the whole of Greece".
After a very hot walk, I reached the area. It seems the commercial growing
of citrus in this spot is dying. Many of the trees were unwatered, with the
irrigation channels dry, and trees often surrounded by weeds. Not quite the glorious
picture I had imagined!

General view of the area, showing how the citrus trees are interspersed with olives
- which manage the dryness better.

A very old and neglected lemon tree - like many in Lemonodasos it appeared to be
unpruned and unwatered.

This garden still had the irrigation channel working, and even some new trees, but
they were having to compete with grass and weeds.

In the National Garden was a building marked as a Botanic Museum, but the inside
was almost derelict. However, there was a pile of somewhat mildewed catalogues
of plants in the garden. This 1981 publication listed the following species:-

C. limetta
C. limonium
C. reticulata
C. sinensis

The island of Naxos is 6 hours from Piraeus by ferry; three hours by high-speed
boat; or 30 minutes by plane.
The cultivation of citrons makes the island
worthy of a separate page on this web-site! Please click the button!

Nikos Razis, an amateur citrus grower near Athens, contacted me to say that there
are citrus growing areas in Greece rather better than the ones I was able to visit.
"The island of Chios (Xios) has a traditional citrus growing area at
Cambos (Kambos). Other citrus growing areas include Eastern (Argos area), Northern
(Corinth Area) and Southern (Laconia / Sparta & Messinia (Kalamata) areas)
of Peloponesse, Southwestern central Greece (Arta area) and, of course, Crete."